Organic Bytes: Occupy Monsanto, Frankenfish, and Fake Natural Foods

 

SUBSCRIBE & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage Monsanto, Frankenfish, and Fake Natural Foods #300, October 27, 2011 In this issue: Quote of the Week: Monsanto Exec: Nature's Smarter Than Biotech World Food Day 2011: Videos, Pictures and Reports from Around the Country Label GMOs 2012: All Eyes on the California "Right2Know" Ballot Initiative Urgent Alerts: Occupy Wall Street: For an Organic, Sustainable Revolution Stop Frankenfish! Stop Illegal Frankensugar! Video of the Week: Cereal Crimes Little Bytes Quote of the Week Monsanto Exec Admits that Nature Is Smarter Than Biotech "You don't need [biotech] for something that nature has already figured out." - Consuelo Madre, vice president of Monsanto's global vegetable group, explaining why the company was using conventional breeding rather than genetic engineering to produce its vegetable seeds, in "Sprouting a New Line of Produce Seeds," by P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2011. Huffstutter also points out that using traditional techniques allows Monsanto to "avoid the financial and consumer hurdles that would inevitably come with rolling out genetically engineered produce for a grocery store." Label GMOs Call to Action from OCA Director Ronnie Cummins for the 2012 CA "Right2Know" Ballot Initiative Signature gathering will begin the last week of December but we are already mobilizing volunteers in CA, planning activist training meetings, and building grassroots support.  Click here to volunteer! Visit the OCF Ballot Initiative Website for more information Label GMOs Label GMOs 2012: All Eyes on the California "Right2Know" Ballot Initiative Our best chance to win GMO labels in 2012 is to pass a California "Right2Know" ballot initiative. We're still at the very beginning of the process. The coalition has just filed initiative language this week, we need thousands of volunteers to gather signatures, and we're going to have to raise several million dollars to make the campaign successful. But, we're on the right track. This is the first step to taking down Monsanto. Learn more Volunteer (CA only) Donate Meet Jeffrey Smith & learn how you can help end the genetic engineering of our food supply (events in Los Angeles, Pomona, San Diego & San Francisco). Support the OCA Stop Monsanto and Move the Organic Revolution Forward Since the first battle over organic standards in 1998, OCA has been "growing the revolution" - fighting against genetically engineered foods, preserving strict organic standards, expanding the organic market, and spreading the good news that organic agriculture can sustainably feed the world while reversing global warming. The time is right to step up our efforts and move the Organic Revolution forward, but OCA needs your financial support to do so. Please donate Urgent Alerts Occupy Wall Street: For An Organic, Sustainable Revolution When corporate money grinds the gears of democracy to a halt, when war is perpetual and economic crises are unending, individual demonstrations just aren't going to do it, it's time to dig in and make the protest permanent. What better way to do that than with permaculture! Mobile Design Lab, Time's Up and the NYC Trash Network are on the scene at Occupy Wall Street with: - a grey water system to recycle water used to wash dishes at the occupation's Food Not Bombs kitchen - urban guerrilla gardening "seed bomb" workshops - a peddle powered battery recharging station - furniture, hand built from found materials More information, including photos and an inspiring video Urgent Alerts Stop Frankenfish & Farmed Salmon Drug Factories! If you've read our article "The 10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish," you're probably saying, "OK, you got me at 'Frankenfish.' I'm not eating GMO salmon!" But, if you need one more reason to tell the Obama Administration not to give AquaBounty's eelpout-salmon combo the green light, consider this: AquaBounty salmon grow deformed and diseased because their DNA is scrambled and they mature at an unnaturally fast rate. Then, these mutant aquatic lifeforms have to be raised in in-land tanks to reduce the chance that they'll escape and decimate wild salmon populations. The fish farms they'll be raised in will be virtual drug factories; loads of antibiotics will be used just to keep the fish alive until harvest. Learn more Take action Urgent Alerts Stop Illegal Frankensugar! What's worse than the USDA approving a new GMO? Doing it illegally! In September 2009, the Center for Food Safety won a significant victory in its legal strategy to stop dangerous new genetically modified organisms when a federal judge ordered the immediate destruction of hundreds of acres of Monsanto's sugar beet seedlings and declared the seedlings had been planted in violation of federal law. The court also ordered the USDA to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement on the effects of GM sugar beets on non-GM varieties. The court outlined the many ways in which GM sugar beets could harm the environment and consumers, noting that containment efforts were insufficient and past contamination incidents were "too numerous" to allow the illegal crop to remain in the ground. In his court order, Judge White noted, "farmers and consumers would likely suffer harm from cross-contamination" between GM sugar beets and normal crops. He continued, "the legality of Defendants' conduct does not even appear to be a close question," noting that the government and Monsanto tried to circumvent his prior ruling, which made GM sugar beets illegal. But during this case's appeal, the USDA defied the court order and illegally approved 2011-2012 planting of GM sugar beets without having prepared the Environmental Impact Statement. The Center for Food Safety is still fighting the USDA for this decision in separate litigation that is ongoing in the District of Columbia. Now, after Monsanto has saturated the market with USDA-approved illegal sugar beet seeds that will inevitably contaminate organic varieties of related crops, the USDA has finally published the Environmental Impact Statement ordered in 2009. The only good news is that this opened up another 60 day public comment period. We have until December 13 to tell the USDA that we don't want any more GMO crops contaminating organic varieties! Stop Frankensugar! Take action WORLD FOOD DAY World Food Day 2011 Check out our World Food Day wrap-up page, with the best photos, videos, and stories from Millions Against Monsanto activists around the country. Reports continue to stream in, but we still haven't heard from some of the 85 cities where Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day events were held. If you haven't already, please send alexis[a]organiccconsumers.org your videos so they can be added to the World Food Day 2011 playlist on the Organic Consumers' YouTube Channel. Post your photos to the Right2Know About GMOs Flickr group and they will be automatically added to the slideshow on our Millions Against Monsanto page. Video of the Week So-Called "Natural" Cereals with GMOs? Federal law requires that organic food products be produced promoting ecological sustainability, without the toxic inputs and genetically engineered ingredients common in the conventional food system. Increasingly, organic products are forced to compete with products that claim to be "natural". There are no guidelines or restrictions for foods labeled "natural". The term often indicates nothing more than meaningless marketing hype promoted by corporate interests seeking to cash in on the consumer desire for food produced in a genuinely sustainable manner. A new video from the Cornucopia Institute explores the vast differences between organic cereal and granola products and so-called natural products, which contain ingredients grown on conventional farms where the use of toxic pesticides and genetically engineered organisms is widespread. Watch Little Bytes Court Loss Won't Stop Environmentalists' Battle Against Modified Eucalyptus Trees Read Occupy the Food System! 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Facebook Pages: organicconsumers millionsagainst comingclean Twitter Feeds: @organicconsumer @againstmonsanto @OCA_comingclean More: rss feed youtube channel Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power! Organic Bytes is a publication of Organic Consumers Association 6771 South Silver Hill Drive - Finland, MN 55603 - Phone: 218-226-4164 - Fax: 218-353-7652 Subscribe & Read past issues and print- friendly PDF versions of Organic Bytes